Classifieds Call: #734-418-4115 Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com ACROSS 1 Filet mignon source 5 __ price 11 Ran together 15 Actress Paquin of Netflix’s “Alias Grace” 16 Tremble 17 Slick 18 Team first managed by Casey Stengel 19 Volcanic archipelago state 20 Eyelid bump 21 Fast clip around the racetrack 24 Internet subdivision 25 Feathered layer 26 USPS assignment 29 Eagerly took in 30 Flutist of Greek myth 33 Romanov rulers 35 Classic shoe polish brand 39 Surmounting 40 Fast clip from the pitcher’s mound 45 “Field of Dreams” setting 46 Lowered the grade of 47 Take potshots 49 Simple survey answer 50 Poetry Muse 55 Own, to Burns 56 Craven of horror 59 Mental haze 60 Fast clip down the slopes 65 “Toodles!” 67 Evening get- together 68 One-named Deco artist 69 Curved paths 70 There for the __: easy to get 71 Plug-in vehicle, briefly 72 Chinese toy 73 Comes down hard? 74 Dines DOWN 1 Greek letter whose lowercase indicates wavelength 2 Developer’s unit 3 Early enough 4 Bahamian capital 5 Pale as a ghost 6 __-Pei: wrinkly dog 7 Fuzzy fruit 8 “Ghostbusters” director Reitman 9 Secretariat utterance? 10 Complaint 11 Anjou kin 12 Intelligentsia 13 English cathedral town 14 Easter egg dip 22 A bit buzzed 23 Aardvark snack 27 Bouncy gait 28 Best Game or Best Play 30 Christmas candle scent 31 Fit to be tied 32 Super stars? 34 Plant pouch 36 Put out of sight 37 “I’m game” 38 Newcastle Brown brew 40 Wolfgang Puck creation 41 New Rochelle college 42 Twice-baked bread 43 Hit with a laser 44 “Awake and Sing!” playwright 48 Farm mom 51 “Slumdog Millionaire” money 52 Brief summary 53 Line dance step 54 Military instructions 57 Bridge seats 58 Scandinavian toast 59 Surfboard stabilizers 61 Got up 62 “Just do it” brand 63 Niagara Falls source 64 Penny 65 Ballplayer’s hat 66 Choler By Roland Huget ©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC 01/24/18 01/24/18 ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, January 24, 2018 Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis THERE’S A CROSSWORD ON THIS PAGE. DO IT. HAPPY WEDNESDAY! 6A — Wednesday, January 24, 2018 Arts The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com ‘High Maintenance’ blows smoke on the competition The stoner comedy isn’t always considered to have intelligent, cohesive storytelling. It’s loosely structured, the characters are high all the time (the main source of the humor) and more often than not, there are scenes of ridiculous slapstick, kooky psychedelic trips and ironic melodrama. But when contextualized in a more timely, socially relevant setting, the stoner comedy can actually be an enlightening commentary on how a person’s need for weed informs their neuroses. HBO’s criminally underrated series “High Maintenance” has already taken that step — and then some. Ben Sinclair (“Home Again”) and Katja Blichfeld (“30 Rock”) co-created, co-wrote and co-directed “High Maintenance” as a Vimeo web series back in 2012. Though the show has grown tremendously since its humble origins, the premise has remained the same: A nameless Brooklyn weed dealer, known simply as The Guy (played by Sinclair), delivers pot to a variety of clients. Its anthology format gives us a glimpse into the private lives of The Guy’s regular buyers, who range from the ordinary to the eccentric. “High Maintenance” may share some the formulaic qualities that define other cannabis-tinged farces, but it’s no “Pineapple Express” or “Cheech and Chong”; it’s something much, much better. Sinclair and Blichfeld’s humanistic approach to the stoner comedy redefines the subgenre entirely. The two have crafted a deceptively meticulous and aesthetically radiant world, replete with sharp, insightful and entertaining vignettes of people from all different backgrounds. Because every episode introduces new characters, most of whom are unknown actors (save for a few), “High Maintenance” excels at capturing the multidimensionality of contemporary society better than most TV shows currently on air. While the first season was focused more on the lifestyles of New York City potheads, the second season explores the role of weed as a coping mechanism in the Trump era. In the wonderful season opener “Globo,” The Guy and his girlfriend Beth (Yael Stone, “Orange is the New Black”) awaken to news of a horrible unnamed tragedy — the details are kept vague, but their reactions mirror the national devastation felt the day after Trump’s election. Instead of depicting the people affected by Trump’s imminent presidency, “Globo” focuses on the marginal experiences of The Guy’s unaffected clientele: A body-insecure man is pressured to go to the gym, a woman and two dudes engage in a threesome at a hotel and a burned-out Latino restaurant worker takes the late- night subway. Conversations about the tragedy are peppered throughout “Globo,” and The Guy appears briefly in each subplot, but it’s the episode’s theme of modern dread that ties everything together. The mere averageness of each character and how they move through the world draw attention to the weight of their ongoing angst, and weed, as a result, helps them get through the day. The second season also benefits from the addition of creative voices behind the scenes. While Sinclair and Blichfeld’s dual collaboration was enough to build “High Maintenance” to what it is, the expansion of a writer’s room and a new director (Shaka King, “Newlyweeds”) help cultivate fresh perspectives on weed culture. The third episode, “Namaste,” illustrates the challenges of class divides through the idealistic aspirations of a struggling realtor attempting to find a new home of her own (Danielle Brooks, “Master of None”) and a disillusioned couple moving from a co-op to a polished apartment. The fifth episode, “Scromple,” lets us know more about the personal life of The Guy, as it reveals a deeper, quieter pain buried underneath his generally nonchalant demeanor. The Guy’s subtle suffering in this particular episode is made only more devastating by Sinclair’s understated performance. Granted, “High Maintenance” may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Most stories end without any closure, often abruptly transitioning right to the next set of characters — think Richard Linklater’s “Slacker” but with more marijuana. Most episodes don’t have a typical conflict/ resolution setup, instead showcasing the randomness of everyday life, either through poignant incidental situations (a drag queen and an exiled Orthodox Jew cross paths in the standout “Derech”) or hilariously strange coincidences (a pet snake slithers into two unrelated storylines in the amusing “Fagin”). But even if its unconventional, unpredictable plotting isn’t tailor- made for mainstream audiences, “High Maintenance” is still such a fascinating, magnetic watch. It’s a show that feels very in the moment, striking a unique balance between universality and specificity through the everyday experiences of flawed, weed- loving people. SAM ROSENBERG Senior Arts Editor HBO “High Maintenance” HBO Season 2 premiere Fridays at 11 p.m. A Night Over the Rainbow What do you hope to find in a room? How do you want to use this space? Whether it be engaging in a one-on-one performance, simply witnessing others partake or staying for one rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” all is welcome as FK Alexander takes over the STAMPS gallery with her performance of “(I Could Go on Singing) Over the Rainbow” starting this Friday, Jan. 26. The space will be open to everyone and every experience. Alexander argues that one reaction is just as valuable as another. “Whatever people’s responses are, I hope they know that they are equal and that they are all welcome,” said Alexander in an interview with The Daily. “Some people want to stay there forever and some people turn out after 10 minutes and they’re just like, ‘she’s just doing that one song.’” The performance consists of multiple renditions of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” backed my the Okishima Tourist Association playing noise music out of small, mysterious, Oz-esque boxes. “They’re playing a kind of lull of noise; It’s not totally chaotic noise, it’s very carefully crafted,” Alexander said. Not only does it add background to the performance, but it also complicates the song. “It brings out a tension in the song, and the song is also bringing about a tension in that soundscape that’s happening.” “There is not a story. There is not a beginning, a middle and an end. It’s this. It’s one thing,” Alexander explained. But while the performance itself is not a story, the audience creates a story on the spot. Each individual narrative may differ vastly, but it is the collective narrative that creates the story as a whole. While the idea of an entire performance consisting of just one song may initially seem a bit daunting, it is in the repetition, the connection and the experience in which individuals will find meaning. Through repetition, Alexander strives to experience what Judy Garland may have experienced over the course of her life. “For everyone who heard Judy sing it in a concert, that was the one and only time she was going to sing it for them,” Alexander explained. For each and every repetition to be for someone and to be more than just one of many: That honesty and sincerity were fundamental aspects that inspired this show. “The sacrifice which Judy made for other people to have this moment, where maybe they felt like they were over the rainbow, was just devastatingly poignant and beautiful to me.” In an attempt to reveal this beautiful sacrifice, Alexander’s performance ventures to give more people an over the rainbow moment. There are so many ways that we try to make others understand, but too often it feels incommunicable. There is only so much that words can do, and at a certain point they lose any sort of power at all. Alexander argued that words can even block the way to pure understanding. “As much as words can really allow people to understand what you are trying to say, they can also really alienate people as well,” Alexander said But then, art steps in. Pathways to communication open as art, and performance give people an experience, or a “sensation,” which permits understanding. Alexander uses the power of performance to communicate her own, and Judy Garland’s, experiences with her audience. Alexander is far from lacking in experience. Stemming from her recovery, her performance has less to do with the unimaginable hardships and everything to do with the fight back. Through Judy’s experience, Alexander realized that the “struggle is beautiful,” and that “the fight against the parts of yourself that are saying ‘you can’t do this,’ that is actually just as beautiful as success.” “What Judy really spoke about a lot was that this struggle towards a happy ending was life, that was the thing. Over the rainbow doesn’t exist,” Alexander said, “but maybe there are moments in our lives when we feel it, when you do get a little bit over the rainbow moment, but you can’t live there, you can’t live in Oz.” Honest, selfless and empowering, FK Alexander’s performance opens the door for the audience to reflect and learn by experience. Promoting connection and communication through her performance, there will be something to take away for every individual, even if it is just knowing whether you want to be there at all. In a world where both communication and acceptance can feel impossible, spending an hour where those things thrive makes it hard to turn away. Perseverance is a struggle that we all face, but the beauty in continuing on is sometimes hard to see. It is from Judy Garland that FK Alexander found her way to recovery, and it is from FK Alexander that the audience will find inspiration to keep going through whatever may stand in their way. “Can’t go on, can’t go on, but you’ll go,” Alexander said. “If you just keep going then it will get better; it will get better tomorrow even.” ISABEL FRYE Daily Arts Writer COMMUNITY CULTURE PREVIEW “Juliet, Naked,” the latest effort from producer Judd Apatow (“The Big Sick”) and director Jesse Peretz (“Our Idiot Brother”), isn’t nearly a failure because of what the movie does, but because of what it doesn’t do. With a great pedigree — Apatow, original book by Nick Hornby and screenplay by masters Tamara Jenkins (“The Savages”), Phil Alden Robinson (“Field of Dreams”) and Jim Taylor (“Sideways”) — it’s a disappointment that “Juliet, Naked” falls as flat as it does. Annie (Rose Byrne, “Spy”) is angered by her long-term boyfriend’s obsession with American rocker Tucker Crowe (Ethan Hawke, “Maudie”). Tucker, with the melancholy of Elliott Smith and the sort of broken timbre of Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, is all Duncan (Chris O’Dowd, “Loving Vincent”) can talk about. He has a room — nay, a shrine — devoted to his collection of Crowe memorabilia, and runs a website dedicated to curating his fandom through his investigative stitching of Tucker’s life. Duncan hides away in his lair after he discovers a disc of demos previously thought to never exist. This draws Annie to a breaking point, and she does the unthinkable, leaving a scathing comment on his review tearing her boyfriend to pieces. Crowe, miraculously, reads the comment, and in his nigh depressed state, writes to her that she was dead- on in her criticism. They develop an online romance until Crowe comes to London after his daughter goes into labor. For a movie that tries to examine the parameters of relationships — parent-child, partner-partner, artist-fan, sister-sister — “Juliet, Naked” surprisingly finds its strength in its individuals, and decidedly not in the interplay and exchanges between a pair. While Byrne, wresting the leading role from O’Dowd, and Hawke, endearing in his own way, bring vibrancy to their respective roles, their chemistry never feels quite truthful. It’s not that they’re acting in two separate movies; it’s that, in relying on the plot alone to forge their connection, they neglected to do it themselves. The same can be said about the relationship between Byrne and O’Dowd, the central focus of the film in its first half. Annie and Duncan have been partners for a long time, enough to have discussed children, but they can hardly stand one another. There’s a lack of genuine love and care for one another that makes the pairing seem like a doomed relationship, even considering the external tension between the two on Tucker Crowe’s musical ability. The film just never quite makes a convincing case that we should care. Ultimately, “Juliet, Naked” tries to do too much in too little time. Rather than luxuriate in the ideas it sets out to discuss, like celebrity, spousal infidelity and parenthood, Peretz’s film splashes water before getting out of the shallow end. On top of the trite and overdone film sequences, the lack of focus makes almost every emotional beat a miss. The film is occasionally funny, especially in scenes that involve Annie’s flamboyantly flirtatious sister Rose (Lily Brazier, “People Just Do Nothing”) or the screwball madness between Crowe, Duncan and Annie. Sadly, only a few punch lines land. When the lucky few do, they reveal the dearth of humor in the film. SUNDANCE REVIEW Sundance: ‘Juliet, Naked’ DANNY HENSEL Daily Arts Writer “(I Could Go on Singing) Over the Rainbow” Friday, Jan. 26 — Saturday, Feb. 3 The Stamps Gallery $12 Student, $30 Adult TV REVIEW